Make and Listen Along: Making & Sharing Spaces

 Make & Listen Along

~ On Thursdays I will post what I have been making and listening to as creations grow. 

If so inclined post, on your blog or flickr, about what you have been making (on your own or with little hands by your side) and listening to while you create. It can be new music, flash backs, a song or a whole album... whatever you like. You can be stitching with needle & thread, yarn, paper crafting, painting, cooking... and beyond. Share what you are making and the tunes that are fueling your creativity. Then come back to my Thursday Make & Listen Along post and leave a link in the comments so we can be inspired right along with you! ~

I have been taking Lori's Master Class in Project Based Homeschooling and this week the emphasis is on environment, the spaces available for creating and project work. 

I decided to focus on our studio space first. For the kids it had become more of a place store work in progress, also known as the dumping ground, or just come get supplies to head off and work somewhere else. I was using it to do a lot of sewing, but with my personal project work pulling me more toward the computer and spending less time at the sewing machine there is really no need for the machine to be up all the time at this point. 

Also with the desk against the wall traditional style there was only room for one chair and therefore one hot body to sit and work. My plans for putting another table in here have not come to fruition and I need to work with what I have at the moment.

So it was the obvious place to start when looking at our creative space. 

This is what it looked like the day I walked in to start moving things around. Desk piled high with stuff,  a work in progress on the floor, books almost falling over on the shelf, art supplies crammed into boxes with said books falling over onto them... not exactly inviting.

The first change was to shift the desk. When I saw another class member had done this I knew it was just what was needed here.

As soon as furniture started moving my girl joined in because she loves, loves, to organize things. Please don't interpret this to mean that her room is clean all the time. We will share that in a minute.

We added to our nature art by putting up our Nova Scotia nature shadow box and the sweet acorn my mom's friend painted years ago (you know, when toll painting was all the rage.)

We placed all of the pens, pencils and markers on the windowsill for easy access to anyone working at the table. The box with painting supplies came out of the cave closet and under the desk for quick access.

The shelf needs a bit more work (for my stuff on the top two shelves) but the three lower shelves that are most used by the kids were simplified. On the two bottom shelves are their "skills" and project boxes. They have things in these boxes that we are working with to improve skills and they are also filled with project information and things in progress.

For that middle shelf we made a blank book and notecard box, moved their math manipulative box and wooden letters down so they could get to them themselves, filled two metal boxes with various sized index cards and post it notes, and placed their magnetic puzzle of the US there as they use it often.

 There is still work to be done (cleaning out the closets a bit more, making better use of the bulletin board and the addition of another chair) but as soon as the current changes were made the room was being used more... before I had even finished with cleaned up.

It is a work in progress and I expect more changes will come in the next few weeks.

My daughter, with the addition of a desk, has finally managed to organize her resources and specimens in a way that she is happy about. I thought I would share what she has done.

Her room is the brightest in the house with two windows and white curtains (with bugs on them) to let in a lot of light. She hung her solar system in a row in front of her big window over her desk. We gave her the big bookshelf when we moved here because the living room has built-in shelving. She loves that shelf. She is constantly moving things around. It this photo her lamps are on the floor (don't ask, I have no idea why) and the pile of books next to her bed is a constant, as she reads a ton but refuses to use the little chest of drawers next to her bed for books.

On the big bookshelf is a rotating display shelf, at the moment her fossil collection is on display.
Her guide books are on the shelf below with more boxes filled with specimens under that.

Her desk drawers are filled with more specimens. In this drawer is part of her rock collection.

And her top drawer is filled with her insect specimen boxes. Those are watchmaker cases, tin with clear lids, of which we obviously need more because the insect overflow is in the plastic bag!

While all of this organizing and making of better spaces was happening this was playing in the background, right along our old standbys. 

What have you been making?

What is on your playlist?

Please do share!

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